Fun in the sun.

I spent the whole day with the horses yesterday. Aside from a couple of hours in the morning (for breakfast and lunch and indoor chores) I was out with them from 9am until 7pm. When I went out to work Mary the boys got all riled up. I think they thought maybe she was getting goodies and they weren't. Once they realized she was just getting worked they settled down, but before that...







But then Sparrow wore himself out and had to take a nap, lol.






Everyone got groomed and hoof picked (the boys were both abducted by aliens and their normal hooves were replaced with hideous alien hooves. i swear, they are on a 6 week schedule and it looked like they hadn't been done in 3 months!!! INSANE!!!). I worked with Brego a lot on ground manners and putting his feet where i want them, then I brought out the milk crate and used it to get up high enough to lay over his back while he grazed. It was like being a teenager again, sprawled across my pony while he chowed down and basically ignored me, lol. Then, much to his chagrin... it was time to get ready for Katherine to come and trim his feet.

It is an ongoing quest to find the perfect way to keep his hair out of her way. This time I french braided his feather down the back of heack leg amd covered it in vetwrap. I ran out before I did a proper job on all 4 feet, so now I know I need two rolls of vet wrap per hoof trim, lol. Brego was not amused, as you can tell by this pitiful and annoyed look he is giving me, haha!




Katherine agreed with my opinion that both boys had been abducted by aliens and their feet tinkered with by ETs. It took THREE hours to do the three ponies!!! Most of that spent trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the boy's feet. I always enjoy when she comes to trim the horses, not just because i like the job she does and the price she charges but also because she is just generally a really neat person and I genuinely like her.

I am exhausted today, though. I'm not used to being on my feet all day long anymore. My hips and feet are making sure I know i over did it, lol.

NOMNOMNOM

Two of my three ponies approve of my activity yesterday. The other one is PISSSSSED at me!!

So I got about 30 temporary step in posts and made a much larger pasture out front. I had about a 50 x 50 foot that I moved around a LOT last year and it was a pain. So I enlarged it and I shouldn't have to move it much, then later when I get a path cleared around the edges i can put in more solid fence and just leave it up out there.

The thing is... Mary is grossly obese. So... the horses get a flake of hay in the morning to share, and another in the evening. Then the boys get to spend a few hours on grass (they have to slowly get used to the grass so they don't get a tummy ache) while Mary gets to... well... stay in the "diet" lot.

She is NOT happy.



"Hey, you JERK! Why can't I go out on the grass????"



The boys don't even have the decency to care:



Poor Mary over there starving to death and they are just happily stuffing their faces:



Sparrow doesn't seem to care at all:



Well, if you run around screaming long enough you WILL get someone's attention, but he isn't going to come help you:



he is just going to look at you like you lost your mind then go back to eating:



Oh, stop looking so pitiful, when you lose some weight you can go back out with them... sometimes...

Until then... here is a handful of grass...


"Seriously? THIS is what I get?"

Everybodys workin' for the weekend!

I considered naming this "Working 9 to 5", "She Works Hard for a Livin'" or maybe "Workin' for a Livin'", or maybe even "Take This Job and Shove It!"


The goats spent a few hours yesterday earning their keep. I put up a span of electric fence across the driveway and turned them loose in the back yard, which worked great until Rosemary managed to scoot under it without getting zapped. *ARG*

I have GOT to get a better fencer box! Something that will knock a critter back if they get too close instead of maybe give them a tingle if they stick their tongue on it.

At any rate, PICTURES!!!

NOMNOMNOM!!!



Pitiful Parsley liked the dandelions better at first. Not sure if you can tell but he is finally shedding his coat and the stuff underneath is a lot more black instead of red. Shinier, too. His skin is still flaky but much better and still improving.



He finally found the scrub wild blackberry. When I first got him he moved in this kind of stiff post legged way, now he runs around all wiggly just like the other goats. He has GOT to be feeling better, even if he does still look a bit... rumpled. he has discovered that girls are interesting, finally, lol:



Thyme was the first one to find the good stuff:



but it didn't take long before they were all getting to work clearing the spot for next year's chicken coop addition:





Rosemary found a good vantage point to scope out the job site:




Sage took a break from brush clearing to mow some lawn:



Once Himself and the other Ladies noticed she was gone they raced around the yard a bit then joined her for some munchies:



If I could trust that they wouldn't blast through that fencing i could leave them out all day but if it won't zap through their fluffy coats they can just blast through it and get to the hedge bushes which are toxic to them. *sigh*

So yeah, really need something better but portable for this sort of thing.

Today it is pony pasture building time.

Tiffany is turning 15.

May 3. Hard to believe she is that old already! This is her current crazy look, lol:



But these are the ones she has gone through in the last month or two (stolen from her picture folders):



(my favorite, but that colour has to be done every two weeks or so to keep looking that good so she got sick of it)







easter:







hehe. She cracks me up.

She has something she desperately wants for her birthday. She has been asking me about it for a couple of weeks.

She wants a ukulele.


My kid is awesome.

WHOOOO! I'm 40!!!!

YEAH!


I'm a horrible blogger.

I forget to write for soooo long, then when I remember I have so much to write that I feel overwhelmed and put off writing about any of it.

SO! I am going to try and write something every single day. Even if it is just a little "yup, still alive!"

At any rate... saturday was my birthday. I got a delightful surprise birthday party. I sorta expected it because I basically told them, "I am turning 40, and I am excited about it, and i want black balloons that say over the hill!!!" I never ever want a fuss at my birthday because i don't like being the center of attention (hard to believe, I know) but this was a special birthday!! I have never been one to get all emotional about getting older. I LIKE getting older. I know, I must be CRAZY. But I have been looking forward to turning 40 for years.

Well, I am up to my elbows in trying to reclaim neglected cast iron cookwear that i was given this week, so i will be back later and over the next week or so I will try to get back on top of this whole blogging thing.